The latest round-up of teen crazes is far shadier – and makes for some rather less innocuous reading.

Children as young as 13 are experimenting with drugs and alcohol in guises that belie their seriousness and make them easy contraband at school, say experts.

Anderson Cooper today revealed that more and more teens are attempting to make strong spirits more palatable by mixing them with candy – creating a potent sweet that is far stronger than many children realise.

'Kids are bringing these to school, kids are bringing these in their backpack, kids are doing this in class and they are just saying to their teacher I am just eating a gummy,' she said.

The vodka candy is easy to mistake for the innocent variety and is made by soaking gummy bears in vodka for three to five days. They absorb the liquid, double in size and change to a firm jell-o consistency.

While Ms Krost said the recipe is a 'creative and smart way to sneak vodka', she underlined its negative impact: 'It's dangerous because you don't know how much vodka you are in ingesting per gummy.'

The host likened the vodka gummies to pot brownies for their inconsistency in strength.

Don't be fooled: Experts said the worry of the adult sweets is that it is impossible to know how much alcohol each bear delivers

Another expert agreed, saying the habit 'is particularly dangerous for children especially. I mean you talk about acute alcohol poisoning – here you have absolutely no control of how much you are getting, how much you are absorbing, how fast you are absorbing.'

He urged parents to be concerned about the potential 'immediate harm' that the palatable vodka can cause.

The show host also looked at the eyebrow-raising trend of vodka-soaked tampons – which were dismissed as being any real threat by an experimental mom who found the unlikely method of intoxication to be unbearably painful.

Teens are also increasingly experimenting with the highly dangerous but legal drug, mephedrone, known as bath salts and synthetic marijuana is also a problem, said Mr Cooper.